Mark Thomas, Owner of The Alley, Taboo Tabou and More, Plans Run for Office

LAKEVIEW — The owner of a punk lifestyle shop and an adult toy and lingerie shop in Lakeview has thrown his hat into the political ring — though he won't say whether it's for the ward in which he lives or works.

Mark Thomas, the entrepreneur behind The Alley, Taboo Tabou and other counterculture businesses at the corner of Belmont and Clark in Lakeview, loaned his campaign organization Friends of Mark Thomas $50,100 last month, according to public records.

Friends of Mark Thomas was created in April to support the businessman's campaign for public office, though it did not state which one. Thomas, 58, lives in Avondale in the 33rd Ward, where Ald. Richard Mell recently retired and left an opening.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is taking applications for the 33rd Ward spot until 5 p.m. Thursday and plans to announce Mell's replacement before the end of the month.

Thomas has been telling people in the Lakeview community for months that he plans to run for alderman of the 44th Ward in the 2015 election. He confirmed to DNAinfo.com Chicago that he is running for a political office but said "it is a little early to lay out my plans" about which ward.

The businessman also helped start Central Lakeview Merchants and its corresponding special service tax area in the '90s. He left the organization in 1999 due to internal disputes, and the association later refused to let him back in because of continued tensions, according to a ChicagoReader report in 2003 titled "Loud Man Out."

Thomas, the Reader report said, is "one of Lakeview's most colorful characters." Most recently, the man known for selling studs, spikes and skulls aimed for a more "upscale," Nordstrom's-type market with a new jewelry line called Marche Noir Organics.

Though he can still be seen around Lakeview wearing black leather and metal skull rings, he said the new line proves that there's another side to him.

"If I fail, I fail," he's said of the line. "I wanted to do something different."